Emmi: Our Newest Addition

Announcing:

Martha Emmalia

May 30, 2014

5 lbs. 14 oz.

17.5 inches

Emmi, as we've decided to continue our tradition of calling our girls by a nickname of their middle names, is an angel. She was named after her maternal great-grandmother, Martha Montoya. She was born at 38 weeks after putting me on bed rest at 33 weeks. Emmi was our heaviest girl, but behind Gabi in length. She has grown the most though. At her two week appointment she had already put on almost a pound and 2.5 inches! She's a giant!

Luci and Gabi are adjusting. Luci (2 1/2) loves her and wants to be a big helper. Gabi (1 1/2) is enamored as well, but gives tough love. She likes to "burp" Emmi after eating. I am adjusting too. It took me awhile to adjust to having three girls under three. I finally was able to have us all showered and dressed by Emmi's 2 week appointment. Of course, I had to break my elbow that day too (another story, another post), so we've entered another adjustment period. I'll write up Emmi's birth story when my other arm is a little more functional.

We love our family! We have truly been blessed!

Farm Country

I love that there are so many things to do nearby. I love that I don't have to go to work and can spend my days with my girls exploring. We took a trip to Farm Country last week. Luci loves horses, piggies, and sheep. Gabi just loves anything that moves or makes noise. We had a blast! Luci rode her very first pony and is obsessed.

Challenge Accepted...and Accomplished!

This year I needed something to kick my butt in gear! After having Luci, I needed to get back in shape. I didn't do so well on that front and then got pregnant with Gabi close to the beginning of 2012. In hopes that I could get myself into a somewhat healthier state of being, I decided to accept the Summer Fitness Challenge. It's hosted by a friend of Eli's from high school. It's not a contest. There are prizes given away by sponsors, but basically you just get bragging rights at the end.

I decided to join the challenge at the Bronze level. That's 120 miles in 3 months. 120 miles of running, biking, swimming, elliptical, etc. I know that doesn't seem like a ton, but it was for me. I've been low-key about fitness the last 6 years. I enjoy dancing, so I did Zumba pretty regularly. I went through running phases, but never stuck with it.

I stuck with it this time. I accomplished my goal this past Thursday. I have run a total of 126.95 miles as of this morning! I've done some biking, as I attempted to do a Lazy Iron Man with Eli, but I mostly ran. I've done 3, 5k races so far this summer. I ran the Run of Remembrance, the Dirty Dash, and the Team Katrina and I have 2 more coming up. I'm running the Utah Runner Girls 5k, this SUPER special 5k in St. George to help raise funds for my cousins' IVF. By the way, Katrina and Kenny & Emily all have crazy, heart-wrenching stories. If you know anyone looking to help families in need, check out their pages. Katrina's family is local. She passed away giving birth to her sixth child. You can read about Kenny and Emily here. I'm a sucker for anything to do with babies and family, especially my family.

Also, I'm running a half. I know. Call me crazy, but I'm kind of starting to enjoy running. I'll be running the Snow Canyon Half Marathon in November. Training started today. I'm crossing it off my bucket list.

 Run of Remembrance (CJBXLR8 was Dad's Corvette license plate)

Team Katrina 6k

 The Dirty Dash

A Birthday Interview with Lucia

I cannot believe we have a 2 year-old! Luci is SO much fun. Here is a Birthday Interview I did with Luci:

1. What is your name? Luci (Woo-see)
2. How old are you? One. Two.
3. What is your favorite color? Color pink!
4. What is your favorite animal? Horsies.
5. What is your favorite TV show? I watch SuperWhy please. Alex and Leah. {Signing Time}
6. What is your favorite book? I like the Poop one. (Everyone Poops)

7. What is your favorite movie? Sully and Monsters! {Monsters Inc., but she also loves Mary Poppins,
    and Tangled.}
8. What is your favorite song? I like ABC's.
9. What is your favorite food? I eat pizza.
10. What is your favorite drink? I drink juice. {She doesn't get it often, so she LOVES apple juice.}
11. What is your favorite breakfast food? Toasties. {Toast with peanut butter and bananas}
12. What is your favorite snack? I eat yogurt. {As well as applesauce and graham crackers.}

13. What is your favorite outfit? Shirt. Socks.

14. What is your favorite game/toy? I play Bubbles iPad. 

15. Who is your best friend? Mommy my friend. Daddy my friend. And Grandma!

16. What is your favorite thing to do? Coloring my book. Shake a booty! {Dance}

17. What is your favorite thing to do outside? I color! {She loves sidwalk chalk.}

18. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Binky. Blank. {We finally got her off her dang         bink by putting it in a dog she stuffed at Build-a-Bear. She sleeps with that now.}

19. Where is your favorite place to go? I go Daddy's work. 

20. Where do you want to go for your birthday? I go Daddy's work.

Gabi - 7 months old

Our {little} Gabi isn't so little anymore. She's growing so much!

At 7 months, Gabi:

• loves taking baths!
• loves listening to people sing (even to me)!
• is moving around by scooting, rocking, rolling, and pulling!
• can get up and rock on all fours and face plants when attempting to crawl!
• drools SO much! I've given up trying to change her when she is sopping wet.
• loves pulling her sister's hair!
• likes to chomp on frozen grapes and blueberries in her mesh teether.
• sleeps 11 1/2 hours through the night and takes 3, 1-2 hour naps during the day.
• enjoys swimming.
• loves anything to do with being outside and likes going on morning runs with me and sister.
• can sit up all on her own.
• still loves to suck on her toes.
• likes reading books.
• is super interested in anything electronic...like eating mom's phone.
• is easy to make smile, but hard to make laugh out loud.
• only cries if she's sleepy, hungry, or has been bullied by her older sister.
• loves to be tickled!
• weighs almost 17 lbs. and gave me tendonitis.
• and looks absolutely nothing like me or her sister!

Gabi is so much fun! She's such a mellow baby. She's content playing alone or with her sister. We're so happy to have her in our family. We are so blessed to have such amazing girls!

Check out those thighs!

Dinosaurs

Luci is obsessed with dinosaurs. If you ask her what her favorite dinosaur is she'll either tell you "steg-a-sar-us" or a "tops" (triceratops). She's even having a dinosaur birthday party. One of her favorite places to go is the Museum of Ancient Life which features a large collection of dinosaurs and other dinosaur activities. She constantly asks to go see the dinosaurs and has yet to get bored. She loves playing with the magnet boards, the Build-a-dinosaur area, the sand and water box, and especially the digging site. Gabi loves it too and stares at the ceiling displays. I thought I'd be tired of it by now, but it's lots of fun!

                                       

Luci also LOVES taking pictures in photo booths. The top right picture is her "scared" face and the bottom right is her "excited" face. I love this girl.

Nothing Like the Great Outdoors...

We've been camping. I've always enjoyed camping. In fact, some of my favorite memories with my family and friends have been camping trips. I went to Girls' Camp 4 years in a row in high school. I was super excited to find that Eli also loved camping and we for sure wanted to pass on that love to our girls.

We've been camping three times so far this year with another two trips in the works. We just head down to our normal spot near Eli's hometown that works well for us. It's only 20 minutes from his parents, so they're able to join us for a dutch oven dinner once in awhile. Luci was excited to have her cousin Branson come visit last time.

Luci LOVES camping! She sleeps in her own sleeping bag on her own cot. We go on nature hikes and and do short canyon hikes. She loves to add things to her egg carton where she keeps her collections. And she LOVES fishing with Daddy. We were able to catch fish this last trip that we could actually use. Luci was a little sad when Eli showed her how to gut it, but she sure loved eating eat! 

There's so much to do and teach Luci and Gabi about. Not to mention it's just fun to watch them! I hope they always love the outdoors...